Early in the morning, agents of the Belarusian security service (KGB) forced
Podolyak, a Ukrainian journalist, out of his home in the capital of Minsk
and put him on a train to Odessa, Ukraine, according to local and international
reports.

KGB agents gave Podolyak, deputy editor of the independent Minsk-based weekly
Vremya, only 15 minutes to pack before they took him to the train
station. His wife, Irina, a Belarusian native, was left behind.

Podolyak was expelled for violating a law that defines the rights of foreigners
living in Belarus, according to an official KGB statement. The statement
accused the journalist of writing "slanderous fabrications" about the political
situation in Belarus.

Podolyak is banned from entering Belarus for a period of five yearsa
restriction noted in his passport.

In analytical pieces for Vremya, Podolyak frequently criticized the
political and economic policies of the government, especially those concerning
relations with Russia.

The Belarusian Association of Journalists (BAJ), a leading media watchdog
group, condemned Podolyak's deportation. The journalist received no advance
warning about his deportation and was given no opportunity to appeal it,
BAJ said.

Despite his deportation, Podolyak said he would continue contributing to
Vremya from the Ukrainian capital of Kyiv, according to the independent
Moscow news agency Prima. Vremya's editor in chief, Pavel Zhuk, said
Podolyak would remain his deputy.

Podolyak is the third foreign journalist deported from Belarus in the past
six years. The heads of the Belarusian bureau of the Russian television
channel NTV, Aleksandr Stupnikov and Pavel Selin, were expelled from Belarus
in 1997 and 2003, respectively.

On June 3, the Information Ministry ordered a three-month suspension of
the opposition weekly Rabochaya Solidarnost for allegedly failing
to inform authorities of a change in address. On June 9, the Oktyabrsky
District Court in Minsk sentenced Oksana Novikova, a private citizen, to
two and a half years in prison for libeling Your Excellencya criminal
offense under Belarusian law. On April 5, Novikova was detained as she distributed
leaflets critical of you at a Minsk subway station.

In 2003, Belarusian authorities also cracked down on U.S.-funded organizations
providing assistance to local media. The Foreign Ministry refused to extend
its accreditation of the International Research and Exchanges Board (IREX)
and Internews Network, forcing them to close their Minsk offices and end
their media training programsa move that added to the growing isolation
of Belarus from the international community.
OCTOBER 17, 2004Posted: October 22, 2004
Pavel Sheremet, First ChannelATTACKED

Several men beat prominent Belarusian journalist Sheremet, a correspondent
for Russian television's First Channel. The attack occurred on the day a
constitutional referendum allowing President Aleksandr Lukashenko to run
for additional terms was passed.

Sheremet was hospitalized in Minsk with a concussion, and police charged
him with hooliganism, according to local and international press reports.
He was ordered to report to the Soviet Regional Court in Minsk on October
20. The hearing was postponed indefinitely because the police had failed
to file the necessary documents in his case.

On October 19, a peaceful opposition protest in Minsk challenging the legitimacy
of the constitutional referendum was violently dispersed by police. Fifty
opposition activists were detained that evening, and several journalists
were injured, including cameramen from the Russian television channels NTV
and REN-TV, whose video cameras were smashed.
OCTOBER 20, 2004
Posted: October 22, 2004
Veronika Cherkasova, Solidarnost
KILLED-UNCONFIRMED

Well-known Belarusian journalist Cherkasova was killed in her apartment
in the capital, Minsk. Her body, which had multiple stab wounds, was found
that night, according to local and international reports.

Cherkasova, 44, had reported for the Minsk-based opposition newspaper Solidarnost
since May 2003. Previously, she worked for the independent business newspaper
Belorusskaya Delovaya Gazeta (BDG), where she reported from
1995 to 2002. Cherkasova primarily covered social and cultural news but
occasionally wrote about politically sensitive issues such as drug abuse,
according to her former BDG colleague and editor, Svetlana Kalinkina.

Marina Zagorskaya, a Solidarnost reporter, told CPJ that four months
ago, Cherkasova had written a series, titled "The KGB is still following
you," outlining the methods of surveillance the Belarusian Security Services
currently use to monitor civilians' activities.

Cherkasova's stepfather, Vladimir Melezhko, found the journalist's body
last night after she did not go to work and failed to answer phone calls
on Wednesday, The Associated Press reported. She was stabbed 20 times, mostly
around the throat. Police found no evidence of a break-in, and nothing was
taken from the apartment, according to local reports.